Winter Olympics under means: US beats Russian athletes in curling

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USA beat Russian duo 9-Three in curling

Winter Olympics opening ceremony Friday

Regardless that the opening ceremony would not happen till Friday in PyeongChang, some occasions are already under means and the USA defeated their Russian counterparts in the brand new self-discipline of combined curling.

It wasn’t shut, both, with brother and sister duo Matt and Becca Hamilton sweeping to a 9-Three win over Anastasia Bryzgalova and Aleksandr Krushelnitckii.

Russia as a nation is not competing in South Korea, having been banned by the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) in December in the aftermath of the McLaren Report.

The bombshell investigation uncovered state-sponsored doping from “not less than late 2011 to August 2015,” together with on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

As a substitute, a contingent of 168 Russian athletes — the quantity may develop on the final minute following appeals made to the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport — have been invited to take part by the IOC after they have been cleared by a overview panel of the Olympic governing physique.

READ: Final-ditch plea by 32 Russian athletes

They’re being known as OARs (Olympic Athletes from Russia) and are not carrying the standard Russian colours of white, purple and blue. Bryzgalova and Krushelnitckii wore principally white with black Thursday.

The Olympics come about 5 months earlier than Russia hosts the opposite main worldwide sporting occasion of 2018, soccer’s FIFA World Cup.